These Tutorials use images, sound files and narrative to deepen understanding of the featured disciplines through close readings of artifacts.

Tutorial 1: Visual Arts

Paintings, sculpture, and other works of visual art express ideals in
their own language.

Tutorial 2: Political History

Speeches, protest posters, and cartoons capture the political views of
various groups.

Tutorial 3: Social History

The discipline of social history focuses on the lives of ordinary people.
Diaries, photos, music, and clothing are all clues to social history and
the lives of ordinary people.

Tutorial 4: Oral History

Folk songs, interviews, and other oral histories can provide alternative
views of a text's cultural setting or be studied as artifacts that help
explain other literary works.

Tutorial 5: Domestic Architecture

Furniture placement and interior design are two of many aspects of
domestic architecture which can relay information about social attitudes
and norms of behavior.

Tutorial 6: Cultural Geography

The study of cultural geography focuses on how we shape our surrounding
space, and how natural and man-made landscapes affect our perspectives.

Tutorial 7: Ritual Artifacts

From Victorian calling cards to Puritan gravestones, ritual artifacts
reveal how humans create and define order in their lives through both
sacred and secular ritual objects.

Tutorial 8: Ceremonial Artifacts

Native American sand paintings, priestly vestments and wedding huppahs are
all objects used in religious ceremonies embodying the spiritual beliefs of the cultures they represent.

When approaching an artifact, it is useful to think of the process for teaching close reading of literaturedeveloping not only an understanding of what a text says (the literal plot of "what happened") but also appreciating the importance of how a text depicts what happened (the use of rhyme scheme, diction, character development, etc.).

The analysis of artifacts involves a similar process of close reading, with attention to the details of how things are represented. The way a figure is posed in a portrait (wearing a particular style of clothing, pictured with specific household objects, etc.) may reveal cultural values shared by the painter and the subject. For example, the use of rhythm and repetition in a song may indicate what information or beliefs are being emphasized, particularly if the original singers and audience for the song came from a culture that privileged the oral transmission of information.